Missing Maverick: Jeff Clark conspicuously absent

Today, the Maverick's Surf Contest could cement its place on the big wave contest map.

Surfers and organizers expect the contest to be one of the most extreme ever, featuring gut-wrenching waves with 50-foot faces and the threat of potentially dangerous southern winds. That's in addition to the $150,000 prize purse, the richest in the sport's history. If it all comes together, it could put Maverick's alongside the In Memory of Eddie Aikau event in Waimea Bay as the most revered big wave contests.

Conspicuously absent from the groundbreaking event, however, will be the man most associated with the vicious break near Half Moon Bay.

For the first time in the contest's history, Jeff Clark will not be at the helm.

Clark, 52, is the elder statesman of Maverick's.

He is the man who first surfed the now infamous break in 1975 and continued to do so alone for 15 years before letting the secret out to the surfing world. He started the annual big wave contest at Maverick's a decade ago and has served as contest director every time it's been held - until now.

This summer, in a well-publicized feud with Mavericks Surf Ventures, the company he helped form in 2003 to resurrect the contest after a threeyear hiatus, Clark was stripped of his contest director title. In a statement released in June, Clark said he was "ousted" from his position by Mavericks Surf Ventures CEO, Keir J. Beadling, and was resigning from the company's board of directors. In January, Clark filed suit against the company for allegedly breaching two contracts it had with him for his services as contest director and "brand ambassador."

"I made a mistake and I trusted the wrong people," Clark said in a statement.

"They have refused to honor the contracts they created and have turned the contest into a corporate circus."

Aside from calling it "the classic squeezeout," Clark declined to offer more details on the dispute or reasons for his dismissal. Beadling also would not comment.

Clark did not participate in the official opening ceremony held at Pillar Point on Oct. 30. He did however join the 24 invited surfers afterward for the ritual paddle-out and prayer circle in the lagoon.

"I paddled out and led the circle in the water, the part that matters," he said. "I left all the garbage on land."

In the wake of Clark's departure, "The Su per Bowl of Surfing" has undergone several changes.

First , the contest waiting period began earlier than ever before. The Nov. 1 start was supposed to allow organizers to take full advantage of the winter big wave season and increase the odds of snagging a huge swell with good weather and light winds. The extension didn 't end up helping much, though, as the best early days came during blacked out holiday periods.

Organizers were able to avoid what happened last winter , however, when the contest was unable to capitalize on the best Mav's swell of the season, which arrived well before the Jan. 1 opening ceremony.

A contestable swell never presented itself during the waiting period and the show never ran.

Second among the changes since Clark left, the 24 invited surfers now vote on when to hold the contest. Previously, Clark alone made the decision of whether to run the event on a given swell.

Now, if the majority of the surfers vote "yes," - as 16 of the 24 did Thursday - the green light is given.

If the majority votes "no," the wait for contestworthy conditions continues.

Beadling, said this change was made "in an effort to democratize the process of calling the event and empower the 24. They understand the gravity of their decision and what's at stake, and are willing to wait for ideal conditions before deciding to call the event."

In early November a solid storm flared up in the North Pacific and the surfers held their first vote.

The 24 voted unanimously against calling the event . While the swell looked to be big enough, the winds were forecast to be poor, making the waves bumpy and sectioned.

"I think everyone involved in the event would like to see big surf with optima l conditions," invitee Ben Andrews of San Francisco said of the decision not to greenlight the event.

"Thanks to accurate local forecasting, it became clear by [Nov. 5] that we would have the swell, but that the conditions would be less than ideal. The unanimous vote not to hold the contest was a good indicator of the 24' s ability to make a good judgment call."

One thing that hasn 't changed is the elite group of big wave riders invited to compete. The list of 24 surfers this season is identical to last year, when they were handpicked by Clark. For longtime contestants like Pacifica's Shawn Rhodes, Clark is still the man at Maverick's.

"It' s definitely a little weird," he said of not having Clark involved with the contest this year. "It's kind of a bummer it happened, but it is what it is and you have to move on.

"I think everyone was pretty happy that he was out there [for the paddle out]," Rhodes added.

Clark has plenty to keep himself occupied these days. He makes regular shaping trips to his surf-board factory in San Diego to pump out boards. He still monitors every potential Mav's swell, and he is charging big waves again after a successful hip resurfacing surgery that kept him out of the water for nearly a month and a half.

As of Dec. 3, Clark had already surfed Maverick's four times this winter and was training for the Tow-In World Cup in Hawaii with his tow partner, 2005 Mav's champion Anthony Tashnick of Santa Cruz.

Clark's presence will still be felt out at Maverick's to day. Several of the 24 will be riding his handshaped big wave guns, surfboards specially designed by the master himself to track down those giant walls of water. Clark said he plans to caddy for some of his friends in the contest, standng by in the water with a spare board in case they break their stick - always a possibility at Maverick's.

While he may have been "squeezed out" of the contest he started, Clark will never be divorced from Maverick's or its tightknit brotherhood of big wave riders. And that's what he says he is most grateful for.

"We surf together out there whether there's a contest or not," he said of his fellow Maverick's surfers. "We're hanging out and sharing good waves and that's what really matters."